Burlington Standard

University of Vermont trustees voted at their winter meeting today to approve the formation of the School of World Languages and Cultures, and the Institute for Agroecology, further enriching the academic offerings at Vermont’s flagship land grant university. 

The mission of the School of World Languages and Cultures (SWLC) in the College of Arts and Sciences is to prepare students to engage with a diverse, globalizing, and ever-changing world. The new school follows the very successful formation of the School of the Arts in 2022 and brings together four departments — Asian Languages and Literatures, Classics, German and Russian, and Romance Languages and Cultures — under the same roof, providing increased opportunities for students and faculty to learn and understand not just the languages themselves but also the cultural context — through literature, film, politics, and social history — in which they exist. 

The Institute for Agroecology (IFA) will connect committed researchers, community organizers, food producers, students, and leaders of social movements and civil society to develop impactful research, learning, and action. It is an ambitious response to the growing calls to transform the world’s food systems in the pursuit of equity, sustainability, and wellbeing through a globally connected, locally rooted approach. 

"Today’s actions represent UVM’s vision for collaborative approaches to learning and research that connect our students and our faculty to the world,” said President Suresh Garimella. “Global perspectives and multidisciplinary understanding will be hallmarks of both the School of World Languages and Cultures and the Institute for Agroecology. I could not be more excited to see these initiatives underway.” 

The Board of Trustees also received a report from its Multipurpose Center Work Group on the status of, and outlook for, that project.  

Following the work group’s report, the full board reaffirmed the university’s commitment to the Multipurpose Center project and reiterated the importance of its original goals including increasing the space available to all UVM students for recreation, wellness and fitness activities and upgrading facilities for intercollegiate athletics. To date, the university has invested over $67 million in the project, which includes a new group fitness hub and multi-use activity court (MAC) that have significantly enhanced recreation space available for the general student body since opening last year.  

“I’m encouraged that the work group and full board continue to support this critical project,” said UVM Director of Athletics Jeff Schulman. “While the pandemic and a changed landscape for construction financing have created significant financial challenges, I appreciate that our donors, along with university leaders and trustees, remain fully committed to seeing this project through to completion.”  

The report also provided an update on the financial outlook of the project. The work group discussed potential funding options and recommended the continued pursuit of all sources of funding, including philanthropy, to help realize the project’s goals. The work group determined that an additional $87 million is needed to complete construction.

“Today, the board unanimously affirmed our commitment to this project and our belief that the plan approved in 2019 remains the best path forward for UVM,” said chair Ron Lumbra. “The board is also keenly aware of the significant resources required to complete the project and we will work intently with our partners to identify funding solutions. We remain grateful for the generosity of the project’s many supporters.” 

Other business in the meeting included: 

• The board discussed Bias Reporting and Response, including a resolution reaffirming the university’s Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action policy and the Equal Opportunity in Educational Programs and Activities and Non-Harassment policy. 
• The board conducted its Debt Policy Annual Review and received a preliminary report on budget assumptions within the Fiscal Year 2024 budget. 
• The following were presented to the board: results of the biennial Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) assessment; Fiscal Year 2022 uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements for federal awards (Uniform Guidance); Fiscal Year 2022 NCAA agreed-upon procedures report; and Fiscal Year 2022 information technology (IT) observations.

Original source can be found here.